Due to the complexity of the controls, real time strategy games don’t generally make their way to mobile phones. Art of War 2 Online brings the genre to the Android platform and attempts to create a functional control scheme.

The good news is that Art of War 2 Online offers up a surprisingly robust RTS experience. You can produce and control a fairly wide variety of buildings and units, and whether or not you beat your opponent will depend directly on your ability to build a defensible base, and manage your units effectively. The experience feels full-featured, and if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll find an extremely rich RTS experience in this game.

The bad news is that Art of War 2 Online never managed to work out an effective control scheme. You’ll have thirty seconds each turn to move your units, and issue build orders to each of your buildings. Without the ability to zoom in and out, you’ll find yourself falling short on time due to the clunky nature of the navigation controls.

In order to move around the battlefield, you have to tap the edge of the screen in the direction you want to go. That wouldn’t be so bad on its own, but the speed is jacked up just a little too high, and you’ll often overshoot your destination, making it very difficult to issue all of the commands you want to inside of the thirty second time limit.

It’s also worth noting that, at the time of this writing, there are about 50 people playing the game online, and about 1,770 total players. In other words, you’ll probably have a hard time getting into a match with a player on your skill level. The game’s a lot of fun when you’re matched up against a player on your skill level, but more often than not, you’ll find yourself getting creamed by a far more experienced player.

Despite some clunky controls, and a small pool of active users, Art of War 2 Online manages to bring a full featured RTS experience to the Android platform. If you’re a fan of the genre on the PC, you’ll probably want to check this game out. Just be warned – matches can last around twenty minutes, so you’ll probably want to avoid playing in the check out line at the grocery store.